Processing data packets at a node generally requires monitoring the age of the data packets. Monitoring of data packets is necessary to prevent aged data packets from occupying queue space and to prevent stale data from being received by unintended users. Known techniques for monitoring the age of data packets involve time stamping the data packets. Traditional time stamping, however, may result in aliasing or rollover because, due to the small number of bits used for time stamping, the stored time may be interpreted as representing a different time than the age of the packet. Increasing the number of bits used for data packet time stamping may alleviate rollover, but may increase the bandwidth needed.